25/9 OCTOBER 2019 [ $10 ] LOTUS & Clubman Notes THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF LOTUS CLUB VICTORIA AND LOTUS CLUB QUEENSLAND With regular contributions from the WA, SA & NSW branches of Club Lotus Australia FEATURES Lotus Driving Academy Sir Jackie Stewart officially opened The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum EMR Berwick to St Andrews via Woori Yallock Targa Great Barrier Reef Stanthorpe Murder Mystery Weekend Print Post Approved 100001716 MELBOURNE NOW OPEN Mark O’Connor has opened the doors to our new dealership in • New and used sports cars. Melbourne. Many of you already know Mark and his exploits in • Servicing, parts and upgrades. Lotus sports cars including Bathurst 12 hour class wins and more. • Vehicle and body repairs. We are unlike other dealerships, we are staffed by car lovers and • Driving events and motorsport race engineers with unrivalled knowledge and expertise. Mark O’Connor 0418 349 178 379-383 City Road, Southbank [email protected] www.simplysportscars.com SSC Melb - LTS04_Half_page_advert.indd 1 12/4/18 3:59 pm OCTOBER 2019 Lotus & Clubman Notes VOLUME 25 ISSUE 9 by Simon Messenger FEATURES Welcome to the October 2019 edition of Lotus & Clubman Notes. It’s been a yet another successful month for Lotus teams in the Targa Great Barrier Reef – over the last weekend in August – with an 04 Lotus Driving Academy outright second place going to Paul Stokell and Kate Catford in their 2014 Lotus Exige Sport 350, 08 Meet the Mechanic: finishing less than a minute behind the 8.4 litre V10 Dodge Viper of the Whites’ team. There were other Andrew Phelps Lotus successes with a total of five podium places. Read all about them in the centre pages. 10 CSCA 2019 Round Six Targa High Country takes place the weekend after the Melbourne Cup. At the time of writing there were just two weeks left to secure a place on the Targa Tour, or as a competitor, so contact your local Lotus 11 Sydney All British Day dealer well before Friday 4th October to make a booking for the drive of your life. Unfortunately, I won’t 12 Sir Jackie Stewart officially opened be able to attend due to other commitments, so please can someone write an article on what it is like The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum to participate in the event and take lots of high resolution (not phone camera) photos. You may even get your car on the front cover just like the Ringuets have this month. Thank you Darryl for your contribution. 14 EMR Berwick to St Andrews via Woori Yallock The last Lotus Cars Australia Track Day of the year will take place at Winton on Monday 7th October, which is a public holiday in NSW. Again, there are a few spots left, so contact your local Lotus dealer to 16 The ultimate Volvo tow car secure a place at this very reasonably priced event. Drive and Sprint Groups are only $349 and the Race 18 Targa Great Barrier Reef 2019 Group is $379. Wrap Up Speaking of which, the date for the next Lotus Cars Australia Track Day at Bathurst has been set for 21 Targa Great Barrier Reef Wednesday 5th February 2020, with a welcome dinner the night before. Bookings are not yet open, but mark it in your calendars and perhaps submit your expression of interest to your local Lotus dealer. 24 Stanthorpe Murder Mystery Check out the March 2019 edition of this magazine to read the article on this years’ LCATD at Bathurst: Weekend 26 DTC September 2019 http://lotusclubvic.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/201903LotusNotes.pdf 28 A Touch of Class The Lotus Evija has been continuing its overseas tour and was recently in Dubai. No doubt a few orders 32 Motorsport Rankings were picked up there. Lotus Cars CEO Phil Popham has also been giving interviews to the media, September 2019 including the financial TV channels. He confirmed that there will be a Lotus Evora GT4 available next year. Check out this one https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2019-09-18/lotus-cars- from Bloombergs: ceo-popham-on-evija-all-electric-supercar-strategy-video REGULARS and this one from https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/lotus-ceo-outlines- 02 Queensland President’s Report Automotive News ambitious-production-expansion-plan-electric-future Europe: 03 KING’S KOMENTS At the risk of sounding like a ‘broken record’ the Akoonah Park Men’s Shed ‘Classics in the Park’ car 07 Quokka Talk: WA’s Lotus scene and bike show takes place on Sunday 27th October. The LCV still need a volunteer to organise a Lotus 17 South Australian: Lotus Torque display at the show. Contact me ASAP at [email protected] if you are able to do so. There is a running theme here, as I haven’t had any volunteers beating down my door to take over 34 Classifieds the coordination of the LCV display at the Formula 1® Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020. Good job there’s plenty of time. The LCV pay the display fee and each owner displaying their car get two 4-day General Admission passes for the event. We had 15 cars this year, so it would be good to get the same number again. The LCV Xmas party and Concours will take place on 25th November, so put that date in your calendar and let’s see if we can get even more Lotus and Clubman cars there. We had 54 last year, including a DeLorean. Details will be sent out soon. If you have not yet done so, please ‘like’ https://www.facebook.com/LotusClubVic/ and share the public LCV Facebook page: And, the LCV have a Facebook group page. Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/599465000503381/?source_id=825446820817917 Mitch and Darryl Ringuet landing after getting Lotus Club Queensland also have a Facebook group page. Join here: airborn at Mareeba in their 2017 Lotus Exige Sport 350. They went on to win the GT Sports Trophy https://www.facebook.com/groups/469376376509513/?ref=bookmarks just ahead Tony and Sandra Seymour in their 2013 Lotus Exige Sport 350 The Club Lotus Australia’s Photo: Angryman Photography https://www.facebook.com/clublotusaustralia/ Facebook page is here: LOTUS & CLUBMAN NOTES OCTOBER 2019 [ 1 ] Queensland President’s Report By Steve Lennox, President, LCQ It has been a busy time in the club over the last around’ has resulted in a donation of $2,725, Lotus & Clubman Notes – Quarterly month, with the extended ‘Tour’ to Stanthorpe, plus Geoff managed to talk Warwick District or Monthly Lotus Cars Queensland Track day, ICC round 6, Sporting Car Club into donating another $1,000. Another topic the committee and I have been Morgan Park Sprint and not forgetting Targa I am really proud to be part of this club and considering is the proposal to change our Great Barrier Reef. Club member Paul Stokell the way we all get together for a good cause. magazine Lotus & Clubman Notes a quarterly got a second outright behind that very powerful All this started as a silly idea I had to do publication. Mike Moore and the other three Viper. Well done Paul, you are playing the long something for the region on our weekend run members of the LCV magazine sub-committee game to get the championship again this year. to Stanthorpe and the club members ran with it have put together a proposal for us (and other Nothing like back to back wins, all in the club and turned it into a significant donation to the contributing clubs) to consider. The main reason are supporting your efforts. region, such a feel-good effort by all involved. to consider this change is the cost to produce The run to Stanthorpe was a fantastic drive Thank you. and the workload on the editorial volunteers. and full weekend event. Ken and I seemed Another busy and active month for our club We held a committee meeting to consider this somehow to get to the front of the pack and with All British Day and club Concours, Colin’s and still believe that the current format and really tested the high-speed touring capabilities Northern NSW/Tweed run, another Track publication frequency best serves our club’s of the Europas. The country is very dry west training day, round 7 of the ICC being the needs. Please feel free to provide your thoughts of Brisbane and part of this weekend was to Hillclimb, all done by the time this is read. and any ideas to the committee. If anyone raise some money to donate to the drought Also, the monthly meeting for October is being would like the details of the proposal and our relief in Stanthorpe. The plan was to fine every hosted by Automotion, thanks to Chris and response, please contact me and I can send the car about $40 in small $5 fines for every small his team. information through to you. So, if anyone would infraction and misdemeanour, plus we got a like to volunteer to help publish our magazine Coming up in October is the final DTC for the couple of generous finees that paid more than please contact the committee. If we don’t get year on the 20th. The club is subsidising this required. In total we managed to skim $800 more help there is a good chance that the round for club members, please keep an eye out from club members and the club made this up magazine goes quarterly or may even disappear, for email notifications on this event. It will be a to $1,000.